Intervention
by bhut
Summary: Early S2 AU - fed-up with Ward's unpredictable behavior, and deciding to give him one last chance, Coulson and the rest of the team decide to set up an intervention...
1. The Pill

**The Pill**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™._

...The next time that Grant got a visit, it was not from Skye – it was from Coulson, and he had back up, including Melinda May. That _really_ did not promise anything good, so Grant decided to be extra wary – it would probably be a good idea.

"Hello Ward," Coulson said in that infuriating smile of his. "We need to talk."

"How many of you are out there?" Grant unexpectedly decided to play along – and that worked.

"Six," said Lance Hunter, before May elbowed him beneath the ribs, for giving their exact number away.

"So talk between yourselves and leave me alone," Grant shrugged even as the ex-mercenary tried to catch his breath.

"...That's an interesting point," Coulson admitted after a brief pause when it became obvious that Grant was not going to say anything else. "One that we should've really seen coming and discussed with each other. But, actually, we're here to talk to you."

Grant said nothing.

"Come on," Coulson half-coaxed, "you obviously have your voice back _and_ a sense of humour."

Grant still said nothing.

"Ok, guess the small talk isn't your thing really," Coulson was not discouraged by the silence. "So let's get to the point – do you want to get out of your cell?"

There was a longer pause as Grant thought this over. "How does that work?" he finally asked.

"Here's the rub," Coulson continued after a pause, during which it became obvious that Grant was not to say anything else. "We can't trust you. You may or may not be loyal to Hydra in general, but you certainly weren't loyal to us, to S.H.I.E.L.D., right?"

Ward said nothing.

"On the other hand, you are trying to be helpful to us, even if you aren't getting anything in return," Coulson continued easily. "As Hunter pointed out, even terrorists and traitors tend to get something in return if and when they cooperate-"

"I am not a terrorist," Grant said quietly.

"And traitor?" Coulson said calmly.

"I was loyal to John, not to Hydra – or to S.H.I.E.L.D.," Grant continued in this quiet tone of voice, "so I can see where you're going with that question. So why are you here?"

"We're here to offer you a choice."

"What choice?"

"Grant, what do you want?"

"That's not exactly a choice."

"Yes it is – you get to decide for yourself what do you want, where you want to go with your life," Coulson explained patiently. "You want to get out of here, right?"

"...Keep talking," Grant said after yet another pause. "And you mean out of this cell, yes?"

"And out of S.H.I.E.L.D. too, if that's what you want," Coulson added. "Don't give me that look either, Grant – if you'd cared about S.H.I.E.L.D., you wouldn't followed Garrett so blindly in the first place."

"Don't talk to me about Garrett," Grant said quietly but firmly, with a decisively dark look on his face. "I know that you like to talk sir, you like to talk a lot and to talk in circles, but can you please get to the point? Or just leave. Or stay. Do what you will, sir, but I think that I'm done with you."

"And I think that we're about done with you," Coulson growled, as he put down a notepad and a pencil before Grant's barrier. "Here. We are leaving and we are putting down the barrier. May will be back later to come and see what you have written. You will write what do you want in exchange for your cooperation and information, and as long as it is not too outlandish or – you get the idea – we will give it to you. You will be out of the cell. You will be treated decently, and after we are done with each other, we will even give you a new identity via T.A.H.I.T.I. and a new life-"

"And if what I want is to be with S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Grant asked, sounding subdued once more.

"Do you?" Coulson gave their prisoner a look.

"Answer my question, please, sir, and I will yours."

"Very well," Coulson said down, sounding resigned now. "The truth is, Ward, is that what we had with each other was trust – and you broke it. Broke it in a very pointed and indicative manner, too." He paused, looked at Fitz, who was also present, but kept quiet, and continued. "And yet, as your recent behavior has indicated, it's almost as if you're trying to regain it via your cooperation; and your last encounter with agent Fitz here suggests that there is some good in you yet." He paused and added, "which is why we decided upon T.A.H.I.T.I., incidentally – if there is a good man inside of you still, the machine will bring it out."

"I am not going through it," Grant calmly looked Coulson in the eye, "now _that_ choice I've made already."

"Sadly, Ward, _this_ isn't your choice," Coulson did not sound too sad however. "You proved to be too dangerous and untrustworthy to be let out on your own-"

"But before, you were saying something rather different – before you tried to distract me with all of the T.A.H.I.T.I. talk."

"Yes, yes I was," Coulson admitted. "You appear to be trying to win back our trust – but that isn't so easily done. You say that you want to be with us – but for what reason? You are, most likely, just trying to avoid punishment for your crimes-" There was a pause but Grant didn't fill it, "or you just want out. In the latter case, you can leave the cell just as easily with your continuing cooperation-"

"And if I honestly want to rejoin S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Not with this attitude! To work for S.H.I.E.L.D. is an honor and a prestige, as well as a duty – and you showed no concern for any of it! Even now you stall for time-"

"No, sir – you're stalling for time by trying to distract me. You don't want me to join to begin with, yes?"

"Yes," Coulson admitted, after a brief pause, with a grimace. "And why should you want to join in the first place? Unlike Hauer, and Rodriguez, and their ilk, you _were_ intelligent enough to realize what you were turning away from."

"And they weren't?"

"We talked to them – and no, they weren't," Coulson said with a grimace. "Cannon fodder, they were, and even Lance Hunter, for all of his faults, is better than any of them-"

"Lance Hunter is a good man, with some interesting ideas," Grant said mildly. "I would never have thought to compare you to Julius Caesar – I mean, that man was a king to every queen and a queen to every king-"

"Enough," Coulson glared and got once more up. "You're not a stupid robot, Grant Ward, no matter how hard you try to be with us. Obviously, you do not trust us-"

"So, how can I...begin to getting it back?" Grant raised his voice for the first time. " _Sir_?"

Coulson gave the younger man a hard look, before producing something else out of his pocket – a box with one or two pills, and they were large, as far as pills went. "Here," he said curtly, but with an odd expression in his voice at the same time. "Fitz and Simmons have developed these pills – they will keep your more violent urgencies in check-"

"And I will have to take them for the rest of my life?" Grant asked quietly, as he eyed the new development.

"Just for the first few months, or even weeks," Coulson said calmly. "Then we will take you off from them. Meanwhile, you will still wear a homing device on you at all times, will not use anything more than an ICER, will not leave the base on your own, and will have to take mandatory therapy sessions as well."

"This will render me useless for S.H.I.E.L.D.," Grant said quietly. "Sir, if you will that strongly about me, just shoot me in the head and let's be done with this."

"And we're back to option one," Coulson said with something that sounded almost like disappointment as he put the box with the pills back away into his pocket. "Can't say that it wasn't unexpected. All right. You remember what I told you earlier? You write down what you want – I suggest that you think about therapy, however: take it long enough and maybe you won't need T.A.H.I.T.I. -"

"Sir, if taking pills means getting back into S.H.I.E.L.D., I'll take them," Grant interrupted the older man yet again. "Please, give them to me."

"And why do you want to get back into S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place?" Coulson replied instead.

Grant shrugged. "I'm not as smart as you are, sir, or talk as fast, or have lived as long, but I like to think that I had plenty of events and experiences in my life. Most of the better ones were connected to S.H.I.E.L.D.-"

"To _S.H.I.E.L.D._? Not to Garrett?"

"That, sir, I will discuss with my shrink or whoever will take the job. Not you – not for a while, and certainly not here and now."

"...I think we can live with that," Coulson nodded thoughtfully. "Go on."

"Not much to go on, sir – I enjoyed travelling the world, helping people: S.H.I.E.L.D. enabled me to do that.

"Us – not Garret or Hydra?"

"No. I," Grant took a deep breath – he was not used to speaking for so long since his larynx was damaged by May's kick – "want to continue to do that – to help people. To help S.H.I.E.L.D. To help-" Grant swallowed the rest of the sentence. "In short, sir, if this is good enough, please give me your pills."

"Grant," Coulson said quietly, "you realize that this is your last chance to become the man you should've been? Once you have taken the pills you will be committed to our cause and you will have to follow it? You will be loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. for real – and if you escape, we will track you down and capture you...eventually...and put you into the T.A.H.I.T.I., regardless of what information you'll still have: S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't negotiate with terrorists and traitors."

"And if I decide on my own that you're right and S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't the place for me?" Grant said quietly. "Will it still be T.A.H.I.T.I. or will we negotiate something else?"

"I would like for you to decide right now, before we waste time and resources doing something that no one here wants to do in the first place," Coulson said calmly, "but since you've only recently began to think for yourself, I'll give you that. Whenever you decide to pull the plug – talk to May, or me, and we will renegotiate. Hopefully, by then you'll have a better idea of what you want."

"Acknowledged, sir," Grant said simply. "Now give me the pill."

End?

 **AN: this is largely a drabble/draft set in the first part of S2. The idea is that after having Ward cooperating with them, Coulson and co decide to stage an intervention of sorts to figure out what Ward wants and how to make him cooperate (and not stab them in the back – again). The stick is not quite right (Ward is either not cooperative enough or is** too **cooperative instead), so they are trying the carrot – essentially the same thing that Coulson offered Ward in "Frenemy" episode, but since this is an AU, the outcome is different than it is in canon ("Dirty Half Dozen" and beyond). I honestly am not sure if I will go forwards from here, but any suggestions – and reviews – are welcome.**

 **PS: the pill is most likely a placebo – what was destroyed in S1 between Ward and others was trust: thus, by swallowing an unknown variable that was given to him by his former teammates Ward showed that he trusts them and that they should trust him back.**


	2. Chapters 2 - 3

**Chapters 2 – 3**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™._

Melinda May hates to admit it to herself, but she's bored. Ever since the mess with Ward, and Garrett, and Cuba, and Cybertek, ever since Coulson and the rest of them had claimed the Playground as their primary HQ, she has been bored. She was back to doing paperwork, and she was bored.

Melinda May was a mature (not old!) woman, a seasoned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and such she was _not_ going to whine – but it wasn't quite fair, or reasonable, of Coulson to send Jemma Simmons to infiltrate Hydra on her own. Oh sure, he had _said_ that Jemma Simmons had back-up, but that only happened when Fitz – backed-up by Mack – confronted him about his ex-partner. Frustrated about the lack of information from Coulson, Leo Fitz decided to confront another source of information about S.H.I.E.L.D. field-based activities, and Grant Ward had complied, voluntarily – and, May suggests, just a bit gleefully, even if Mack insists otherwise. (But Mack, for all of his prowess and good qualities, is not a killer and a predator – and Ward is. Mack is a formidable person in his own rights, but he is also a gentle soul, which means, if Grant Ward decides to throw it all out of the window and go for the throats, even if agent Mack is prepared...this will not be good.

For agent Mack.)

In this case, however, things went badly for Coulson, when Leo had confronted the older man once more, in public, asking WTF Coulson never told him that Jemma did not just leave him; she left on a mission, and didn't Coulson trust him with that information? He and Jemma had almost drowned for the sake of S.H.I.E.L.D., after all!

Coulson's response wasn't very impressive; Melinda knows why – he was about to have another alien-blood-related episode; his symptoms aren't progressing as fast as Garrett's have been, but they're still there, and Melinda has to help him in keeping them under control, only Skye now seems to have an idea of what they actually mean – or not. So far Coulson has Skye working on redesigning S.H.I.E.L.D. Internet, or Intra-web, or, essentially their entire internal website – it is for internal use alone, but all the same, it is outdated, apparently, and is run by only some primitive computer programs – and the Koenig brothers.

Melinda _can_ respect the Koenig brothers, especially on a good day, and she _is_ sorry for their loss, but on not a good day, they can be somewhat trying, and they themselves have admitted that computer programming and the like isn't their forte, so for now they're sticking with administrative duties, while Skye is working on changing the site as a computer programmer – her and about a dozen people that she knew before Coulson and co had picked her up, but they're still good people, and the Koenigs have reluctantly given them partial clearance as part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new personnel – computer, rather than field, but still: while May is stuck in a cubicle, other agents (women agents, especially) are out in the field doing missions, recruiting new people, and isn't fair!

There is a quiet knock on the door, interrupting Melinda from doing whatever she was about to do – (most likely some useless paperwork that the Koenig brothers have already done). She opens the door – and it's Ward. Traitor.

"Agent May, please, can I have a little bit of your time?" he asks meekly.

Melinda is about to slam her door into his face, but – please? When Ward has said that word to anyone?

"What do you want?" she growls instead as she lets the ex-agent in.

Instead of replying verbally first, the ex-agents gives her an e-form to sign. "Could you please sign it?" he says quietly. "I honestly want just to go outside-"

"What's that got to do with me?" Melinda's honestly confused.

"You're the agent in charge of it, according to S.H.I.E.L.D. official information." The reply is still straightforward and there is something strange in the man's eyes, something that reminds Melinda of their nights together, before lady Sif and the Asgardians came into their lives, before Hydra arose in all of its multiheaded glory-

She will not go there. She will not! She is not Skye or Phil to deal with this via long speeches – she has dealt with this with physical action, by crushing the man's larynx – and here the man is, patiently sitting here, waiting for her decision.

This is not her place; this is not her role, for she is not Skye, who somehow became the object of Ward's affections after he turned Hydra. For she is Melinda May, the Cavalry, and she is actually dealing with this because-

(A brief look at the e-screen)

-because someone – judging by the clumsily-worded phrasing ('clumsily' is used generously here), it's the Koenig brothers – decided that it would be a good reason to put the aging agent to pasture by literally putting her to pasture by giving her the duties and responsibilities of being responsible for the outdoors actions and activities of all the personnel of S.H.I.E.L.D.-

-which now includes this man, who is no longer listed as a prisoner, but rather as a probationary instead.

"...You okay?" the aforementioned man asks quietly. "You've been staring at the screen for several minutes now-"

"Why do you want to go outside?" Melinda growls, even as she automatically e-signs the form.

"I haven't been outside for so long," comes the reply with an easy shrug. "I just want to be there."

And what one could say to that? Melinda said nothing.

(And when she realized that the permission granted to that man meant that she would have to _accompany_ him per Coulson's orders, she swore – but not for very long, for even the not-so-great outdoors are better than some pointless paperwork.)

/

Once they are out, Grant- that man- looks to be genuinely happy, just like any ordinary person (who had not breathed clean air and seen the sun for ages) would. There is something of a goofy smile on his face (incompatible!) and he is just standing there, enjoying himself.

For her own part, Melinda is confused, and when Ward- that man- just sits down next to the sun-warmed metal of the Playground's wall, she is something suspiciously bordering on upset. She does not know why, and that bothers her. She always knows what she is feeling, doesn't she?

"You know, we can go further into the woods," she says with sarcasm (by her levels, anyways).

"We can?" Grant- that man- looks positively delighted with this possibility. "Thank you!" And he begins to move into the woods.

As Melinda follows him, she cannot help but feel that this isn't right, Grant- that man- should not be with her, but with Skye, having a time of their lives (as she once had with Andrew at that age – where did the time go?)...or perhaps they all would be out here, having some sort of a family picnic (honestly, she cannot be the only one going stir-crazy in the Playground, can she?) instead.

...The man who has destroyed this happiness is the man she is walking with. Alone. In the woods. She is the Cavalry, true, but she is not an outdoors person, not really, and Grant- that man- walks and behaves as one.

...Phil may not be a _professional_ profiler of people (mainly agents and the like, but still), but he is very accurate at this, as a rule. His profile of Grant Ward did not indicate that he is an outdoors person. What gives?

/

...They did not get far. Not too far away from the Playground's tower, Grant Ward turned right, then left, and suddenly Melinda found herself alongside him in a forest clearing, complete with a small flowing brook.

"We won't be going further, agent May," Grant Ward said firmly, "and we're still on the Playground's ground, so I am not running. Or violating my terms in any other way."

And they were. A brief look at his tracker, then another one – at her own GPs, and yes, they are still well within the Playground's range on one hand, and yet hidden safely from anyone's sight on the other. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D. still has its scanners and similarly high-tech devices, but with Grant staying here, the odds of them being triggered are very small. If he's going to get rid of the tracker and bolt-

But he is not bolting. Rather, he is sitting down, still looking ridiculously happy, and almost looks as if he is meditating. If Phil was here, he would be determined to break the other man out of this, but he isn't here, Melinda is, and she isn't going to be the talkative one in this situation, damn it!..

..And so she waits. And after a while Grant stirs and looks into the grass. Sure enough, there is a snake crawling through it, its tongue flickering in and out.

...Melinda is not afraid of snakes. She is the Cavalry! She is a mature, experienced woman!

...When the snakes crawls beneath a stump (it may have hissed slightly into Grant's direction, but that is impossible), she _does not_ exhale in relief, for she is the Cavalry, and besides...that would have been premature. Something sounds beneath the stump and out runs a lizard – past Melinda, beneath some lying log. Another sound – and from beneath the log runs out not a lizard, but a wild mouse or a vole. It runs into a burrow beneath a tree – more sounds – a pair of squirrels or some other rodents run up that tree and into a hole in its trunk.

There is more noise, and out flies an imp!

...Well, a small owl of some kind actually, but Melinda has enough. She shrieks, and Grant smiles – an honest, happy, amused smile, the sort of smile that his teammates had never seen on his face on the Bus, ever. So why is he showing it now to Melinda? He should be showing it to Skye! Right?

"How did you find this place?" Melinda asks the first thing that comes to her mind. She is not used to speaking long sentences, but if the occasion deserves it...

"G- My S.O., he knew about the Playground, apparently, and before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. he gave me a- clue, to find it. A sort of an exercise, I think," Grant replied, his good humour – and his smile gone abruptly. Pity, for it was a very good smile actually. "I found it; I explored the environs, and six months later? I got enrolled into S.H.I.E.L.D."

"...That's not what John Garrett has told us – well, Phil, mainly, back then," Melinda says, weakly, especially for her.

"Really? I would have _never_ guessed." This time Grant Ward's smile is bleak and humorless, a flawed shadow of his true smile. Pity about it – that is a very nice smile...

"..." Grant Ward stares at her in a strange way. Did she say that last bit aloud? She must be really getting old.

"Nutcracker princess, you're not old..."

That tears it; that was the name Grant had invented for a bizarre reason of his after getting an idea about what she has done through after Bahrain – named after the Nutcracker (some sort of a Soviet version, Grant said), as in the handsome prince (the beautiful princess in her case) who got cursed into the ugly wooden doll per the spell. Despite her age, despite the fact that she was just seducing him so that he would help her against Coulson if things got ugly, Grant Ward called her beautiful.

Grant Ward is a liar.

"Don't dare call me that!" Melinda hisses – she should scream, but she is the Cavalry, she does not scream. "You do not repeat your lies to me!"

"I didn't lie to you back then," Grant stands his ground, "just as you didn't lie to me. You told me that you were keeping an eye on Coulson for Fury; I told you that I was doing this for J-, for G-, for my senior officer," (he manages it on his third try), "and you didn't appear to have a problem with that-"

"That was before," Melinda realizes that she is not sure how to finish this sentence, so she switches tactics. "What is your point?"

"I didn't lie to you back then," Grant says simply. "I honestly told you that you're an amazing person who got reduced to a shell by tragedy. I honestly told you that I will help against Coulson-"

"And ended up telling me nasty lies on a secret base, before kidnapping Skye," Melinda cannot help but to point this out.

"I couldn't think of anything better to do – how to handle you," Grant confesses. "I didn't want to fight you, I didn't want to kill you-"

"You couldn't kill me even if you've tried!" Melinda snaps. "After all, we fought-"

"Yes, and I while I can't remember the first time all that well, the second? I didn't want to kill you still," Grant shakes his head. "We've may broken up – and that wasn't my fault – but I never wanted to kill you."

Melinda thinks this over. In the not-so-distant past, she had given a lot of thought to her fights with Grant Ward, and has to admit that he is not lying here. The first time, when Lorelei had overwhelmed him and made him hers, his brain had switched off, at least on some level, and the man who had fought her had been something else – relentless, unstoppable, remorseless, foreign – very different from the man who called her a 'princess' (despite the fact that age-wise she's more of a queen, **cough** ), who had a warm smile and eyes, and who was very energetic – and enthusiastic – **cough** – in bed...

"...You have this really strange look on your face," Grant cautiously speaks up. "Should I be worried?"

Melinda stares at him. Her face _is_ hurting, which means that she has made a facial expression, something that she had not done in the years between Bahrain and the Bus-based mission, and had not done ever since Grant Ward turned traitor either. It is weird. It is wrong, or at least – not right. Grant Ward had turned his back on...them all in favor of his treacherous S.O. She should just leave and avoid him as much as possible.

...She wants her face to hurt and to have facial expressions again. She does not want to be a nutcracker (or any other inanimate object). She wants – friends?

...Grant Ward is a traitor. She should have nothing to do with him, just leave him be on his own and go-

-to her office cubicle, where she'll just sit there, like a Nutcracker on a shelf (she had read the damn book, just to figure out if Grant was complimenting her, mocking her, or something else), waiting for something exciting in her life, something like-.

-like going outside with someone who cares about her. Phil may treat her as a friend, but he has problems of his own, in part because of the alien blood in his veins.

...Garrett ended up with alien blood in his veins. Phil still will not tell her what happened to him after that, and Fury had skirted the issue too, before disappearing to Europe – _and not cancelling his last orders to her about Phil_. This is not good; this just may be a completely new level of bad...

...That sort of thinking caused her to use her sexual wiles on Grant Ward; that, and the facial expression he had after the effects of the Berserker staff on him; he later claimed that it was unnecessary; he would do it just because she – the Cavalry – asked him, but he had certainly been enthusiastic and eager...

"Are you feeling all right?" Grant asks in the present, startling the Cavalry out of her trip down the memory lane of the recent events. "You look kind of strange-"

"Grant Ward!" Melinda straightens and shoves the ex-agent away – at least in theory. In reality she had forgotten that the two of them were outside, in the wild outdoors, and so she slipped on a root of a stump, lost a bit of balance, and slammed face first into her interlocutor – a finer point of Melinda May's life this was not.

"I hate wildlife and nature," she mumbles into Grant's chest. (And it is not a bad chest to mutter into, actually, especially if she had been younger.)

"It's not very everyone," the latter agrees, muttering into her ear. (She is not that old.) "You haven't answered my question-"

"Grant," Melinda hisses into his body. "Let's be honest. You have abandoned us. We have every right to abandon you. You want to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. still? Fine, we can do that – we can have you assigned to a post somewhere away from most people forever..."

Grant says nothing, but Melinda is in the position to hear his heart beat – and she knows that she has the advantage of him now. For now, anyways. "...but," she continues steadily, "this wouldn't be right. You've been given one last chance, and we're going to see if it works."

"It will," comes the reply, and Melinda can hear the determination in his voice now. "Why are we standing like this?"

Melinda pauses and decides to skip the question. "Remember our talk after the Berserker staff incident? I want to re-start our arrangement."

"...Is he beginning to die as Garrett had?" Grant does not miss a beat.

"Garrett didn't die, he was killed," Melinda frowns.

Grant pauses, biting back his first reply. "When he got injected with Raina's last concoction," he is carefully choosing his words now, "he didn't die as a _body_ ; he died as a _person_. The man who you might have known died then and became replaced by some insane double instead. If Coulson is affected, his body will not die, but the man you knew will disappear all the same."

This does not sound good. Grant Ward is a liar, but somehow Melinda doubts that he is lying this time – the pain in his voice is just too real to be a fake. (And will anyone speak about _her_ in such an emotion after she is gone?) If that is the truth, then she really needs to look out for Phil, and-

"We are going to make a deal," Melinda says quietly. "You're going to talk to me about Garrett – about his experiences with alien blood, about his relationship with you, everything. And in return-"

"You don't need to do anything in return," Grant's voice is a murmur, but a strong one. "After all, we're on the same team-"

"I wouldn't go that was just yet," Melinda's murmur is equally strong, "but you are back in S.H.I.E.L.D. – sort of. S.H.I.E.L.D. does not just _take_. It also _gives_. We are not Hydra. What do you want?"

"This," Grant says simply, and considering that by now one of his arms is on Melinda's lower back, the latter decides to be confused.

"What do you mean by that?" she glares upwards at him. She is the Cavalry – she is not Skye, who really should be here, integrating Grant Ward into 'the team'. She should not be in a private place with a younger man, doing-

Well, maybe she would have, if she would not suspect that Grant was playing her for...something, and that he was really in love with Skye, who is younger and prettier than she is. Melinda likes Skye, she honestly considers the younger woman to be her friend, but she also cannot help but to realize just how old she is compared to the hacker turned agent, how little she got time left, before she is officially the right age to retire from active duty and stay in some office for the rest of her life – or to just retire and face...nothing. No family, no children, no anything. Three cheers for the great Cavalry. Hooray!

"Nutcracker princess, please don't cry," Grant says quietly, from his superior height. (Stupid man with his manliness.) "I don't mean anything by that, other than the fact that I want to be a free man and an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. If I knew what Garrett's schemes would lead to, it would have been different. Except for blood, he was my father, and I couldn't save him..."

Melinda believes him. If Grant had told her something fancy, or grandiose, that could come out of a comic book, she would have believed that he was a liar. But this, this genuine misery born from realism in his voice – this is truth.

"Then we'll do that," she makes her decision. "You help me, and I'll help you. No details, no specifics, just – something. Deal?"

"Yes, deal," Grant nods. "Shall we go to the Playground now?"

"Yes," Melinda replies simply, and they walk to the Playground quietly and silently, though Melinda does have to tell Grant to get his hand off her...hips sometime later.

End

 **Author Notes**

 **Another two chapters gone (one short, one extra long), and a series of notes to follow.**

 **1) Grant. Grant got many, many flaws, and Skye has hit the main one on the head – he is a robot. He is not just** emotionally **stunted – he is** socially **stunted; outside of protocol, he does not really do humans at all. Of course this leads to the question as to how he was able to make a career in S.H.I.E.L.D. regardless, but this is not important here.**

 **Grant's 'thing' in S1 one was that when Hydra revealed itself, he had actually began to understand as to what he was missing on team Garrett/Hydra – and threw it away all the same when Garrett got into trouble. This makes him a better man than an average member of team Hydra (Garrett would've killed Grant off without a hesitation if that would've brought him to his goal – and he had Deathlok in control too, otherwise he would've hesitated), but makes him only more tragic as a character, especially as S2 is drawing to a close. Grant can be a hero for real once more, but to do that he has to embrace his humanity, something that the first half of S2 did not do. Grant was just in solitary confinement, something that he did not need. (Coulson was lucky that Grant was with Kara Lynn when he had to assemble the team to rescue Skye – otherwise Grant would have just killed him and duked it out with Deatlok instead.) But what is more-**

 **Grant was not bothered by his solitary confinement, not really. Give him a visit from Skye every once in a while, and he's happy. Most people are not like that, this is why prisons use solitary confinement as a punishment, because put a person on their own long enough and they will go crazy and/or much more cooperative. Unless, of course, they were crazy to begin with, (in which case they tend to end up permanently isolated instead...if they don't live in Gotham city, of course), or...**

 **Or, in case of Grant, they are very anti-social, and can survive on minimal social interaction instead. Rewind and we are back in the forest, where Garrett had abandoned Grant for several months without any human contact - supposedly. Human beings are social animals, and no matter how much Grant wanted to please his new father figure, he would have run into other people...just to get new supplies at least. When Garrett went to pick him up, Grant wasn't running stark naked in a loincloth, nor did he look like some stereotypical hillbilly or crazy hermit; odds are, he had run into other people, but didn't establish much of a lasting contact with them – and Garrett, while quite cunning, clever and ruthless, was also arrogant enough to overlook this, meaning that Grant didn't wholly become his creature, just... too little too late. (He** deserved **that epic takedown by May.)**

 **...Of a lesser importance, it should be noted that in such a situation Grant would learn either to love the woods (and nature in general) or to hate them. Considering that he is a field agent specialist, my money's on the former – Grant just might be that sort of a person who loves animals and nature but hates people. (And we never actually see if his shot at Buddy the dog was hit or miss, so there.)**

 **2) May. May and Grant – the relationship that was and everyone pretends that it was not. Of all the couples discussed in fandom, May & Grant actually were on screen, with May making the first move at the end of the Berserker staff episode. This happened largely off screen, so we do not know how it went, but the odds of the two of them just doing like rabbits...no, just no. That is more of a Skye and Grant thing, especially in fanon. **

**...Yet whatever Melinda and Grant had, it was personal. Melinda broke up with Grant after she got defeated by him, while he was dominated by Lorelei (Grant isn't a robot, more of a Tin Woodsman, who isn't exactly a thinker, but tends to listen to his heart – when he does, he's a hero, when he isn't, then there's a problem...for Grant, not the Woodsman, of course). Grant has done a lot of bad deeds by now, but that? Was not his fault. Melinda broke with him for one thing that he had a good excuse for, and that didn't make Grant happy – hence his less-than-motivational speech in the S.H.I.E.L.D. secret hangout n 1, when he had killed Koenig (n 1) and captured Skye. Why didn't he kill Melinda when he had the advantage? At that moment in the series – he probably did not want to. I will not say that he had a crush on Melinda ever, but there is something of a personal feeling between the Cavalry and Grant, for she tends to avoid him.**

 **No, seriously – Grant has been confronted by Coulson and Fitz; Skye shot him; Simmons tried to shoot him (sorry, Jemma, but you are no Skye, so do not even try!); and Cavalry? She avoided him and never tried to confront him, at least not in canon.**

 **When Grant escapes – same thing. Tripp, Hunter and Morse try to take him down and fail at it so very, very badly, and Cavalry? Does not step in. She avoids Grant again. Why?**

 **Anything goes, of course, so one can suppose that May feels an odd sort of kinship towards Grant still. Perhaps she is thinking regarding him – "there but for the grace of God go I" – for until Hydra rose up and Garrett took Grant with him, May was on the top of Coulson's shit list for working over his head for Fury. Then Grant did his own betrayal, Melinda's work for Fury was forgotten/forgiven/understood, and we have canon S2, where Melinda is helping Coulson deal with his progressing alien-related instability, until Skye solves it instead, remember?**

 **In canon Skye becomes Melinda's protégé, in this story – not so much, hence any feelings and insecurities between the two women, any confusions that the two women have towards each other will come out earlier (though I am still waiting for the S2 finale – the May/Skye confrontation is going to be interesting to say the least), 'cause it is an** AU **fic.**

 **End of AN (for now).**


	3. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 _Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Lance Hunter was not so sure what to make of S.H.I.E.L.D. Make no mistake, he liked it, he liked his co-workers, (and with his ex-wife not around, he could possibly have some fun with some of them, too), and from what he had seen, they liked him back, (which was good).

Ok, but then there'd been Isabella, Izzy, and she too used to be S.H.I.E.L.D. (for most of her life), and for all of her own friendly relationship with the agency, she had no intention of returning to it ever, no matter what the 'director' Phil Coulson would propose.

" _S.H.I.E.L.D.," she once told Hunter, after some particular impressive sex on_ _both_ _of their parts, "is a world onto itself, it is self-contained."_

" _You mean self-sufficient, right?" Hunter asked her at this time._

" _I meant what I said,_ Lance _," Izzy said firmly. "Once you're in, you're in, and you cannot get out. Hell, even if you do something crazy, like torture another agent, they would still find ways of keeping you – probably involving memory alteration or something, but still. This isn't what I want, not anymore."_

" _Why not?"_

" _Because S.H.I.E.L.D. is great – if you like what it does. If you do not – then it is anything but great, but you are still stuck in it. I remember Victoria, agent Hart – she was once as a vibrant person as you were, and then she got involved with the agency – and now she does not believe in anything; she just a shell of a person that she once was. I do not want this to happen to you. I do not want this to happen to both of us, actually. Promise me that no matter how nice Phil Coulson gives you the pitch, keep some degree of independence before joining in –_ _please_ _."_

Several days of this Izzy died, died in a way that involved S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra and an alien obelisk. Hunter found himself allied with S.H.I.E.L.D. much more intently than before, and so far he did not regret it – but he had always heeded Izzy's words and judgement and tried to keep an open mind to the whole thing, which, again, looked to be quite decent – but then there was the ghoul in the basement.

Well, not exactly a ghoul – this was not 'Harry Potter' after all, more like a Hydra prisoner, but that was one thing that Hunter did not like – not the Hydra part, the prisoner part. Shouldn't a prisoner be treated relatively fairly, especially since S.H.I.E.L.D. was the good guys? This _was_ a discrepancy, and Hunter did not like it.

...The intervention did resolve this discrepancy – to Lance's surprise. He honestly hadn't expect his opinion to carry much weight with director Coulson, no matter how hard Lance tried to flirt with him (apparently, when it came to men, the only man Coulson cared about was Nick Fury; pity that), the man remained immune to his charm; Lance planned to change that – eventually, but still.

...Of course, it appeared that Coulson and the rest of his 'old guard' (whatever that meant, Hunter didn't really cared) were ready to do something themselves about it – well, about the prisoner, who was definitely a 'he' – and they did do it: put him onto probation, with which the ex-prisoner, Grant Ward, had agreed with, and that was the end of it, really.

Only Lance Hunter remained oddly unsatisfied with this turn of events: he still felt that he was being cut out of the loop, that this was just a part of a series that he had no knowledge of – and it rankled. Well, the cut-out-of-the-loop part – not the knowledge part, he supposed. He could live without that, but still, either there was something in the air of the agency that he did not know about, or Izzy had played him for some reason of her own – and that was worse.

Well, when in doubt, always go to the source – Coulson had mentioned to the ex-prisoner, Ward, that the latter had been released in part because of Hunter's intervention, so this had to count for something, which meant that he could be predisposed towards Hunter in a friendly way, right? Either way, it could not hurt to pry _him_ for some information, and so Hunter went forth to find him and to pry. How hard could it be?

/

Apparently, quite hard – that Ward fellow switched from being a ghoul in the basement to a ghost in the walls, as he just did not want to be found.

"Of course he doesn't want to be found – he tried to kill us, after all," Fitz commented to Hunter when the latter ran into the smaller man during the search for Ward.

"And you tried to kill him back later," Hunter replied, dismissively, as he went on in his search. "You're even now, I think."

"This- this was different," Fitz glowered at the ex-mercenary. "I, I-"

"I don't care," Hunter shot back, even as he was leaving. "Deeds speak louder than words and all. Coulson may have this moral superiority; the rest of us – not so much."

And he was gone.

("What was that all about?" Mack asked, as he finally caught to his shorter friend.

"I think that our newest member is a jerk in his own right," Fitz muttered. "Not a traitor – just a jerk. This isn't a good thing either.")

/

Surprisingly, (or not), Hunter found the man he was looking for in the base's gym, alongside agent May. Agent May was somewhat sore with Hunter because he was putting moves onto director Coulson, and though the Oriental woman would say otherwise, Hunter was quite confident that she carried a torch for Coulson herself, in private – but that was not Hunter's problem, not yet and not exactly; plus, ever since Izzy was gone, he felt lonely...

At any rate, at the moment agent May was sparring with the man in question, and having participated in such events himself, with Izzy, Hunter _was_ impressed by all the action that she and Ward put into the workout, without hurting each other in the process too, which was what he told them.

"Oh? You want to try?" Melinda May asked, even as she shot Hunter a dark look.

"I'm not good with that," Hunter said modestly, "but I can try."

"Ward," May turned to the other man. "Would you?"

"I guess," the latter replied, sounding rather unsure. "Is it a good idea?"

"We'll see," May replied as she walked to the side benches. "And start!"

And Lance gave it all he is got, actually, as he planned on doing – he rather wanted to impress the other man. Not for sexual reasons – for manly reasons, for reasons of camaraderie, and the like.

It was not enough – Ward defeated him in a record time, and Hunter had a distinct feeling that the bigger man was either holding back or something else, something similar. This was not something that he liked, and so he demanded a rematch.

And another one – and it was only on the third (or fourth) fight that Hunter was able to fight the bigger man to a standstill.

"Sorry about this," Ward confessed, sounding genuinely apologetic. "I was somewhat stuck in the 'robot' mode at first."

"Excuse me?" Hunter blinked.

"My S.O., who was Hydra, he had trained me in a rather particular way," Ward muttered. "Anyways, why did you come here?"

"To talk to you," Hunter shrugged. "What can you tell me about S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

There was a pause.

"Aren't you a part of it?"

"Yes, no, it's complex," Hunter confessed. "I do like it – it's very impressive – but Izzy had other ideas about it, and she was never really wrong." He paused and confessed some more. "I miss her."

"Yes, she was a good person," May nodded, "not unlike Victoria Hand-"

"Yes, and Hand is still alive and well in Australia," Hunter said, somewhat cross, "while Izzy isn't."

There was a pause. "Victoria Hand is _dead_ ," Melinda May said firmly. "Ward here had killed her."

"No, she's quite alive – just has a monstrous scar on her temple," Hunter stood his ground.

"Of course she does – I put it there," Ward agreed. "It was either that or to kill her, and I didn't want to kill her. So I did the next best thing and put her into an escape pod so that she could, well, escape. And that's what she did, too."

"...It's like Fitz and Simmons, isn't it?" May muttered, half to Ward and half to herself. "You couldn't disobey Garrett's orders, so you tried to do the next best thing. And because you're a specialist-"

"I began to think about ways how _not_ to kill people a long time ago," Grant nodded. "Killing them is just too easy and that just never appeared to be a good thing overall."

"Right," May spoke up before Hunter could. "And she didn't join us-"

"Because she doesn't like Coulson, or you," Hunter interrupted the woman agent. "Neither did Izzy, for that matter, and she usually was right – but this time I think that she wasn't."

There is silence, as none of them know how to break it, until Melinda May did. "No, no they didn't," she spoke. "The old S.H.I.E.L.D. was a big place, with plenty of factions and what else. There were alliances. There were grudges. They were, I guess, carried over when the old S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed."

"I talked to the director about Izzy some time after the whole Creel incident, he once suggested that he and Izzy were friends, but when I told him that she didn't consider him to be her friend, he admitted that they were never too friendly, in truth," Hunter joined in.

"I'm not surprised – Coulson was often too quick for his own good," May shook her head, before turning to Ward. "But can you prove it? That she is actually alive?"

"Yes, and so can Hunter, I bet," was the reply.

/

Phil Coulson was having a normal day in his life; the failure/pyrrhic victory with Donnie Gill had given them (i.e. S.H.I.E.L.D.) something of a reprieve in regards to their stand-off with Hydra (at least according to Jemma's reports), when the door opened, and the Cavalry, followed by Ward and Hunter, of all people, walked in.

"Yes?" Coulson asked, neutrally. Even after the intervention, the relationship between Ward and the rest of Coulson's old team remained strained (though May appeared to be mending bridges with him for some reason), while Hunter...it was hard to tell with Hunter: he appeared to be eager enough, and interested enough to join S.H.I.E.L.D., but there were some reservations...Coulson guessed from their talk about the late agent Isabelle; there had been factions in the old S.H.I.E.L.D., alliances and grudges, and it seems that it all had survived the fall of the old S.H.I.E.L.D.-

"Phil," Melinda said quietly. "I need to call someone, so can you stay on the sidelines – at least at first? Then maybe you should pitch in, but first," she took the tablet and Skyped someone (pun not intended here).

"Yes?" spoke the person on the other end of the line. "Cavalry?"

"Hand," May replied with feeling (by her standards). "You _are_ alive."

"Yes. Who gave you this number? Ward?"

"Yes, but also Hunter."

"That was stupid – for either of them. I could have been useful-"

"Victoria, are you Hydra?" Melinda grabs the elephant in the room (the new one) by the tusks.

"No," Victoria says firmly, "never. Neither was Izzy, if you want to ask about this-"

"Then what is your problem?" Phil joins in at last, having finally gotten over Victoria Hand's own return from the dead. "Victoria, what has gone wrong?"

"I don't like you, Coulson, pure and simple," the reply is just as direct as the question was. "And S.H.I.E.L.D... I do not know about S.H.I.E.L.D. I got an opening to retire when my attempt to kill Garrett went south and I took it."

"So what are you doing now?"

"I got an opal mine; it's mostly fire opals, but still – very high quality ones," Victoria's reply carried _some_ amount of pride in it. "I can be very comfortable for the rest of my life-"

"You never wanted this," Hunter interrupted. "You and Izzy used to argue about it all the time-"

"And where's Izzy now?" Victoria's voice grew sharp.

"Creel killed her, and Coulson's team – with my help – put him into the US military custody," Hunter promptly replied.

"...That was a rhetorical question, idiot; I already knew that! Gods, I don't know what Izzy saw in you; she thought that you were the hottest thing on two legs that lived on Earth since the dinosaurs and that your ex-wife was a fool to divorce you; but I know better-"

"Really? I loved her too."

There was a pause in the conversation as Victoria just glared at the others through the screen.

"Let's get back to business," Coulson decided to take control of the conversation – or at least to try. "Victoria – you are not Hydra; I cannot force you to come back-"

"Coulson, why do you want me to come back? I talked to Hunter, to Izzy – you didn't even through me a wake-"

"And it's a good thing, since you're still alive," the joke is in a poor taste, but Victoria did not mind:

"Yes, _director_ , but my question still stands – why do you need me?"

"This isn't the right question," Coulson shook his head. "S.H.I.E.L.D. needs people, yes, but only those that need it. We cannot force you to come back, we aren't inviting you to come back because we need you, we're inviting you to come back in case you need us – it's an open invitation, take it or leave it."

"I'll – I'll call you later," Victoria flushed and switched off at her end.

Coulson turned to Ward instead.

"So, Hand is alive," he looked thoughtful. "This is just like the FitzSimmons – only it worked."

"Yes sir," Ward nodded, "and the damn thing was supposed to float!"

"It's not about that, it's about trust and teamwork," Coulson pinched his nose. "It's like that mission that Hand had sent you and Fitz on, remember?"

"Yes."

"You and Fitz made it because you helped each other – and the rest of us helped both of you! S.H.I.E.L.D. is a family and a team – one can make _individual_ decisions, but the more important ones must be made _together_."

"I'm _beginning_ to understand this, sir," Ward nodded. "It's just that, for a long time, I thought that _Garrett and I_ were a _team_."

"...Yes, I think I'm beginning to understand that," Coulson nodded quietly. "How did Hand fit into this?"

"I think she suspected that Garrett was Hydra, but we never talked about that face to face," came the reply. "When Garrett had left me to fend in the wilderness, Victoria Hand and _her_ S.O., White Bow, came and found me. They taught me the basics of surviving in the wilderness, which were very helpful." He paused. "White Bow died during that time – old age plus his shamanic exercises proved to be too much for him."

"You mean all those things that she does with candles and other shite?" Hunter spoke up.

"Yes. That," Ward nodded. "She's still doing that? I am not surprised. White Bow...he taught me some too, but she's still the expert."

"...Ok, what and who are they talking about?" May crossly asked Coulson.

"White Bow was a Native American shaman – a holy man – that was working with us. Recruited by Fury, he was more of an asset, because of his job – a shaman – but he was quite cooperative with us, so some books list him as a proper field agent instead. You remember how it was?" he asked May, somewhat sheepishly.

"Yes; and he and Hand _did_ know each other," Melinda nodded, before pausing. "And I don't think that she was Hydra, but I think that she suspected about it but rather than sharing the information, she decided to keep it and to use it to become a hero instead – she may deny it all she wants, but she was, or rather is, a glory hog."

"She also knows all the basics of the outdoors training that I do," Ward suddenly countered. "She may not be in your league, Cavalry, but she is not just a suit either."

"Duly acknowledged," Coulson nodded thoughtfully. "But for now – you're dismissed. Unless there's anything else?"

There was not, and the trio left.

 _TBC_

 **AN – and the story is back on line. Sorry for the long wait – it got off track really badly; hopefully, the next update will not take so long. Until then – review please, and do remember that this is an** **AU** **. Cheers!**


	4. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 _Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Few weeks later Lance was able to establish a proper, full-time contact with Grant – and Melinda 'call me the Deputy Director' May.

…Okay, she did not actually say this – in fact, she probably would not say anything, leaving Grant to talk for both of them, and Grant actually was not very talkative himself…especially if compared to Lance. That was okay, (sort of), Lance could talk enough for two, and Grant did his part in a conversation, so it did work, something that Lance was proud of: carrying a conversation all by himself could get quite boring after a while, even for him … but this was not the case, so there.

"…So, what do you think?" he asked Grant and Melinda when he showed them his collection.

"Not my thing, but I am genuinely impressed," Grant confessed, as he and Melinda examined Lance Hunter's fancy hats. "You have clearly spent a lot of time collecting them all."

"Yes!" Lance spoke – maybe Grant was just being polite, but Lance could work with politeness. He could work with many things, not just politeness, so there! "Look, I _am_ a mercenary; there aren't too many things that I can do with cash. Booze and women are fine, but even I cannot spend all of their time on them. Bob…well, things did not work out with Bob-"

"Oh. You're gay?" Melinda stopped observing some of the hats (she had a particular look on her face; Lance was certain that she will ask him to wear, or even to loan, some of his hats soon, which was okay – Melinda was a careful person in this manner), but this wasn't the question here.

"No. Bob, or Bobbi, is Barbara. Bobbi Morse. She is my wife," Lance admitted, no longer as happy as he was before – Bobbi was still a _very_ sore spot for him, even more so, now that both Izzy and Idaho were gone... "She doesn't really like hats. She used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., you know?"

"Yes, I do know," Grant replied, while Melinda silently eyed them. (What a surprise. Really!) "I used to work with her when it was necessary. Then she got married – to you – and had a boy. I think. Right?" he asked the shorter man who gaped.

"…What are you talking about?" he finally managed.

"John and Victoria were friends with political benefits, once," Grant made a wrong confusion purposefully or otherwise. "Therefore, whenever Victoria needed a specialist with my set of skills, she loaned me from John without any fuss. The end. It was rather how it happened with South Ossetia," he added to Melinda, who was listening very attentively, (even more so than before).

"What kind of specialist was agent Morse?" she asked instead, emotionlessly. (By now Lance learned to differentiate between various tones of her voice, and from this one he sobered up himself, somewhat).

"She was primarily a specialist of seduction," Grant's own voice bled dry of all emotions. "But, Victoria did had me teach her to fight. Morse is a specialized fighter, she primarily uses nunchakus or Bo sticks, but with them she is as good as you are without them, Cavalry." He paused and added: "Few years ago she and Lance Hunter had a son – if he is that Lance Hunter—"

"I am!" Lance replied instantly, "only my relationship with Mason, it's complex…" he pulled out a photo of him, Bob, and Mason. "See?"

The other two agents very carefully looked over the family photo, in a professional manner, even.

"We do see," Melinda exchanged a carefully controlled look with Grant.

"Well, I don't!" Lance snapped. "Somehow you're doing this S.H.I.E.L.D. quasi-telepathy thing and cutting me out! Come now, I thought that we were friends!"

There was a pause as the other two people stared at each other _and_ at Lance in that sort of a 'warm' and 'fuzzy' manner that made the Englishman tone down his righteous indignation a lot and look away. "Well, I _thought_ that we were friends," he repeated in a much quieter tone of voice.

The other two people exchanged another look between each other.

"We had issue with friendship even before the entire Hydra matter," Melinda spoke quietly, almost - reluctantly, but at least she sounded human now. "Grant and I…we don't love each other, but we were trying to be friends with each other. He…reminds me of my ex-husband, Andrew, in all the right ways – and the wrong ways…" She shook her head and blinked. "Can you forget the last part?"

"It's the hats," Lance said kindly, "they're distracting."

"What Melinda is trying to say," Grant gave the other man an unamused look, "is that we were trying to be friends, when S.H.I.E.L.D. went down, Hydra came into the light, and I chose to follow John instead." He looked away. "It _was_ damned if I do, damned if I don't situation, but it doesn't matter. John wasn't Hydra either, but he was going to be working with them, if it enabled him to burn S.H.I.E.L.D. down to the ground and plow the resulting ash field with salt so that nothing would ever grow there again."

"Why?" Lance was not sure if it was he or Melinda who asked this question.

"He never was the same after the Balkans; he would grow incoherent whenever he was asked about what happened, and it grew steadily worse as time went by," Grant didn't look so well himself; he was visibly twitching and sounded honestly miserable. "I tried to help, I really did, I just didn't know _how_. I was not Hydra, John was not Hydra, but it does not matter. You can fuck things up without being Hydra, you know?"

"Okay, that's enough," Melinda said firmly. "Lance Hunter, Grant here needs something to calm him down and get him back into character." She twitched herself and looked askance at the hats. "Got anything to drink to go with the hats?"

"Just tea," Lance admitted sheepishly – for all of his love of USA, he _was_ British, after all…

"As someone has told me once, alcohol is overrated," Grant commented, already calming down and pointedly NOT looking at Melinda. "Melinda, agent May, Lance already has shown us his hat collection, we might as well have a tea party to further the madness."

"You don't need to be _rude_ ," Lance sniffed, "but it would be _nice_."

Melinda gave the men an enigmatic look. "Fine," she reached her decision, "let's have a tea party. Can I have a boa while we have it?"

…Lance Hunter hated loaning his boa to anyone, but, well, sometimes to win you had to sacrifice.

"Sure," he said instead.

 _To be continued…_


End file.
